Pension Application

S.15231
Otsego Common Pleas of October Term 1832. Declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7, 1832.
Otsego Common Pleas of October Term 1832.
Declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7, 1832.
State of New York
Otsego County SS.
            On this 15th day of October 1832 personally appeared in open court before the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas in & for the County of Otsego being a Court of record & now setting John Secor aged 69 on the 13th day of January next who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7th 1832. That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers & served therein as herein after stated to wit.
            In the year 1780 this deponent was a resident of Haverstraw in the then County of Orange now Rockland County in the State of New York. In the month of January of that year this deponent became 16 years of age & in a few days thereafter he was drafted from Col. Gilbert Cooper’s Regt of Militia into the service of the United States for nine months & attached to a company under the command of Captain Samuel Thompson. This deponent states that according to the best of his information, Capt. Thompson had previously been taken prisoner by the British when a captain in the regular service & having been exchanged a few weeks afterwards the command of a militia company was given him of which this deponent was one. The Lieutenants’ names were Joshua Hunt & William Conkling.
            Immediately upon joining his company they were marched to White Plains when Genl Washington lay with the arm. We were soon ordered back again to Haverstraw near Stoney Point to watch the Refugees &Tories. He was engaged in this arduous & Perilous duty at this place & in the immediate neighborhood until the expiration of his term when he was discharged. In a few days & as this deponent thinks about the first of October he was again drafted for the term of three months & attached to the same company in which he served his first term & under the same officers, Capt. Thompson, Lieuts Hunt & Conkling. He served out his term faithfully & was discharged, but in a short time & in the first part of January following he was again drafted for the term of six months longer and transferred to the same company & under the same officers that he had previously served. During this service as in most of the former service they were employed much of the time as Scouts throughout the whole country which they alternately cause to gain information & to match the refugees & Tories. They frequently made excursions into the State of New Jersey & upon one of these occasions Lieut. Hunt died. He was succeeded by one Hovencamp. He served out his time of six months & was discharged.
            This deponent served in the whole under the drafts aforesaid for the term of 18 months but he does not recollect that they were ever attached to any regiment, but he well knew Captain John Johnson & Capt. Robert Barek who he believes were attached to the regular Service.
            In consequence of this deponent’s living so near the Theatre of action he was frequently called upon or rather pressed on into the service before he became 16 years of age like all others who lived near the army.
            And previous to his ever being drafted he frequently volunteered as a militia man for short excursions & upon alarms.
            He well recollects that in the year 1777 in the latter part of the year he with all the others who were to be had in the vicinity were called upon to assist in guarding the troops which Genl Gates had taken under Genl Burgoyne at Saratoga as prisoners through the State of New Jersey. His place of residence & the country round about was the scene of a constant predatory warfare. This last mentioned service & many others of a similar nature was performed before he became 16 years of age. He assisted at one time in taking a spy by the name of James [FluEllen?] who was afterwards hung as he thinks at Poughkeepsie as he understood—He was born near Haverstraw in the County of Rockland New York on the 13th day of January 1764. He has a record of his age taken from the family record some years since at home. When about 24 years of age he removed to the Salisbury Litchfield County CT when he worked at Carpenter Work about 10 years from thence to Colchester Delaware Co. N.York for about 3 years from thence to Guilford Chenango County NY where he resided about 36 years about 18 months since he removed to the Town of Middlefield Otsego County where he now resides,.
            He refers to the names attached to an accompanying certificate for his character as to truth &b veracity. Has seen Genl Schuyler, the Traitor Arnold whom he saw at his father’s house about ten days before is treason buying a [?] of butter, also Genl Washington, Wayne & many others. He has no documentary evidence of his services nor does he know of any person living whose testimony he can procure to them.
            He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any state.
            He further declares that he never had any written discharge. (Signed) John Secor
            Sworn & Subscribed the 16th day of October 1832. Horace Lathrop, Clerk.

Letter dated May 29, 1924, written in reply to a request for information.
            I have to advise you that from the papers in the Revolutionary War pension claim, S.15231, it appears that John Secor was born January 13, 1764, near Haverstraw, Orange (later Rockland) County, New York, and while a resident of said place he enlisted in January, 1780, and served nine months as a private in captain Samuel Thompson’s New York Company.
            He enlisted in October 1780, and served three months in Captain Samuel Thompson’s New York Company.
            He enlisted in January 1781, and served six months in captain Samuel Thompson’s New York Company.
            He was allowed pension on his application executed October 16, 1832, while a resident of Middlefield, Otsego County, New York.
            In 1848, a son, Dr. James Secor, was living at Mount Upton, Chenango County, New York, and he stated that his father had been dead a little over one year. There is not further family data on file.

Copyright © 1998, -- 2008. James F. Morrison and Berry Enterprises. All rights reserved. All items on the site are copyrighted. While we welcome you to use the information provided on this web site by copying it, or downloading it; this information is copyrighted and not to be reproduced for distribution, sale, or profit.